Production of cement



Patented Apr. 18, 1933 uNrrEn STATES PATENT: F -1 31 ni-smemsrnn, or isnoNXviL E, NEW YORK rnonno'rlon or cement 2 N Drawing. Application filed May 24,

' My invention. relates to the manufacture."

heating to complete theburning;

I In the manufacture of Portland cement calcium rich materials such as limestone,

' chalk or marl are intimately mixed with materials rich in alumina and silica, such as 29 cement rock, clay, shale, or blast furnace slag, in definite proportions. The resulting intimatemixture is then burned at a high enough temperature and for a suificient length of time for the various ingredients to 5 combine chemically and physically. The resulting. clinker is finely ground to produce the cement of commerce.

In order to obtain a uniform, high grade product such as is now demanded, it is nec- 30 essary to grind each material to a very fine state of subdivision andthen to very thoroughly mix the different ingredients in order thateach minute particle of anyone of the ingredients may be closely associated with the correct amount of each of the other ingrew .dients at the time of burning, with the result that all particles of the burned clinker are uniformly of the desired composition.

The importance of uniform composition in the burned clinker is leading to the gradual adoption of the wet process in which the raw materials are ground wet and aremixed in a -.water slurry. This change is taking place despite the fact that the Water left with the ground and mixed raw materials must first be removed at the expense of, in some cases, anadditional filtering stepin the operation and, inall cases, the use of considerably more fuel in the burning. a The reason for the general adoption of the wet process is, first, that pended in a water slurry.

to the clinkering kiln and all thewateraprestimately mixed together, ,are rolledaround,

:1929. Serial no. 365,787.:

it ise'asierand cheapertto obtainvery fine I grindingwhen the operatio-nis done wet and, r Y

second, because. it is possible to get much more perfect mixing when the materials are sus- In the wet process the material-is ground so fine that the mixed slurry is verydiflicult to filter, so that in many "cases filtration is-not' attempted but the slurry is delivered direct L OD ent evaporated before the ground; materials reach the clinkering zone. This results in a considerable increase in the amount of fuel which must be burnedin the kiln.

In this country the rotary kiln, because of itssimplicity and large capacity, is almost' unlversally used to burn cement clinker. When arotary kiln is charged with'finely ground powders, the rate of rotation must be limited tolthe point at which a minimum Of 7.

the powder will "be lifted and t dropped 7 through the gas stream since, if this hap- 1 pens to any appreciable extent a considerable part of thematerial charged will be carried alongas dust in the gas stream and lost. The finer the material, the-more easily I will it dust, and the'more slowly must; the

kiln be run to keepthe resulting losses at an economical minimumg Since a relatively 7 small part of the "heat required to operate ,139 the kiln is actually u'sedto burn the cement it follows that when the amount of material which can'be put through the kiln is limited, the thermal eificiencyof the kiln is also limited; and anything which tends to decrease the'cement' making capacity of the kiln increases the aniountfof fuel required per unit of product; Modern fine grinding. makes this problem of kiln capacity very important to the cement manufacturer and any method which will economically treat the kiln feed so that the kiln can run at appreciably higher capacities without injuring the quality of the resulting clinker, ';Wll1 effect very real savings. i

- When two or more materials, which differ H in size and shape of particle and in specific gravity, and which have previouslybeen iii-- as cement raw materials are in passing,

. g ngo i through arotary'kiln, a certain amount of segregation of each ingredient will vtake place; In other words the present method of burning finely ground cement raw materials in a rotary kiln to some degree undoes the mixing which has previously been ac-' complished at considerable expense. When in addition to the rolling motion obtained in the kiln there is also a fairly rapidstream of gas passing overthe surface, and whenin addition a considerable volume of gasis being generated Withinthebody of the mate-1 riaLas happens in acement kiln, due to evolutlon of; carbon diox de from thehmestone,

a still further segregation results because 7 some'of the ingredients-dust more easily and?" i if soaare 1iI1OV(l to" a greater extent than others. The dust obtained from rotary kilns in cement plants is usually of diflerentbomposition-from the feed even after making allowance for coal 'ash and volatile materials;

"1 Commercial cement usually difiers materially'in composition fromthat which laboratory testsindic'ate =to' be lr'nost desirable, for the reason that-fan excess of certain ingredients is less'jharmful-than an'excess-'o f other in gredients, and since it is not possible to-insure-complete combination ofall particles in theclinkery that ingredient which is least harmful when present uncombined in the finli hed; clinker is usually added in excess at the beginning.

5 f es For example it is believed that the best cement should'contain a'ratio of 'combined calcium oxide to silica, orits equivalenu of about 2.8, but no cement manufactured by tlie; ordinary process actually contains this much combined calcium oxide 5 because it is impossiblewitha single burning to 'produ ceisucha cement without having oxide .that theresulting product will not be satisfactory for the purpose to which cement present'so muchfree or uncombined calcium is put Because of this wellknown fact it nary-cement clinker and then mix it with xBy' causing the very finely-ground and be sintered togetherbeforethey are fed to the r'otary kiln, my invention avoids these di'fiiculties. The binding fof'the ingredients together greatly reduces dusting and, since any material, separated-from the mixture by dusting will bejofuniform composition, differential dustingfwill 'be prevented. The

,mechanical'segregationyreferred'to above as OlQJEiCtiOImblGQWill also be eliminated by following -'my process} 'An' advantage gained i thereby is that the optimuni proportions of thesvarious' ingredients maybe mixed without producingan objectionable-"excess of any of them in the finished-product. F or exa1nple, theratioof calcium oxide to silica,o r its equivalent maybe made to closely apf proach 2.8 in the original mixture without causing the finished cement to contain an 0bjectionable amount of free calcium oxide. When used in conjunction" with the wet process of making cement; my invention 'fur= ther provides means whereby theseparation Z of the finely ground raw cmaterials fromthe water of the slurry by filtration is greatly facilitated by Inixingfthe relatively coarse granular fuel necessary for sintermg, Wll'ill" the slurrybefore the latter is filtered.;- Thisf increases the capacity of the filtering equipment used and reduces the amount ofwater 9 leftin thefilter cake thereby reducing {the amount of fuel required toevaporatetheiwa; j 'ter before the clinker; can be burned, :"QOther advantages willbecome apparent.

In the preferred practice; of] "my inven tion I incorporate a suitable amount of car-b0 'na'ceous fuel, such ascrushed anthracite coal or coke cbreez e -with a previously -,prepared finely pulverized admixture of the raw ma terialsused for cement manufacture. In

using my invention'in a cement plant inwh'ich the wet process is employed,- I prefer to add the relatively fine fuel to the slurry of raw materials,.since this-isla convenient point of addition and because the presence'ofthe fuelji particles aids in the filtration of solid ma- "'terial from the slurry. Alternatively I may 1 incorporate the fuel with previously/filtered moist unburned 'materialsfby' an ordinary mixing operation ina pug mill or the like-* In applying my'proces's in. a plant in which the dry process of cement manufacture is used 1 I prefer to moisten the finely pulverized 11a burned cement raw v materials, after which I mix them wlth' the crushed fuel by. any, con-" venlent mixing operation. The moist admixure of fuel and, unburnedcementmaterial '7 .may b as thrOugh-v fluted rolls 201! the equivalent; soas to form itinto'agglomerates' -......4T(' orgranules-or it may be transferre-d'in'bulk V form -.d irectly froinfthe; pug mill or other milling device to the sintering operation. 3 v Q."

is preferably crushe'd to such fineness-that it.

punched holes. These particles-are relatively large as compared with the cement raw n1aterials which arepulverizeditosuch a degree that about eighty percent will pass through a two hundred mesh screen. Thesize'of'the coal particles may be variedto give the best" 3 results in the filtering step (where the wet process of mixingis used) and-to providea; I satisfactorily previous layeron the palle't'tes.

If desired, difierent sizes of crush'edcoal may be added before and'after the filtering stepf: o" obtain the best results'in on the sinterin g machine;

The amount of fuel required varies because 9 The fuel: mixed" with the raw materials -will-pass through"one quart'er'inch punched 7 holes, but not through one-sixteenth inch wheelies and the amount of carbon dioxide to be removed, as well as the Water in the feed to the sintering machine, varies. In general from eight to fifteen percent of the weight of'the raw cement materials will be required.

In the simplest embodiment of my invention, the mixture of cement raw materials and fuel, thus prepared, is deposited, preferably from a swinging spout and in such, a manner as to avoid packing, in a shallow layer on a tray or pallette of metallic or other heat-rerected upon the top. of the layer: of materiaL The continuously moVingpa-llette, after passing over the draft box carries the charge to the end of the machine where it is dumped.

The temperature of the material during the combustion of the contained. fuel may beso high that it may damage the perforated bottom of the pallette, and for this reason I prefer to place on the top of the pallette a layer of previously sintered or partially sintered coarse agglomerates of uniform size and large enough so they will not-fall into and obstruct the holes of the pallette. This will prevent the combustion of material indirect contact with the metal and will serve'as an efiective heat insulation. This material may be obtained by passing the product'froin the sintering operation over one or more screens of suitable mesh and returning'the desired amount of granular material of the desired size to be used as a layer between the pallette and the mixture of fuel andunburned cement.

If insufficient material is obtained in this way,

some of the sintered product can be crushed to produce granules of thedesire'dsize; The I porosity of the layer on the grate mayfbe varied'by varying thesize or quantity of the granules of this layer. It may also be desirable to mix some of this granular material with the charge itself in order to re gulate the porosity and consistency of the entire 7 bed. 1 r

The apparatus to be used with my process any suitable type. Forthe purpose of describing an application of the first step of my process, reference will be made to a con tinuous sintering machine, such as'that described in LiddellstI-Iandbook of Non-Ferrous Metallurgyl, pages 32.7yt0 340, in connection with thesintering of ores. V

I am familiar With the fact that it has been proposed to substitute the continuous ground the resulting cement is. of inferior jfici'ent time is given for the'reactionsto com-' be ofsuperior quality,

means of clinkering cement; YThisproposal has not been successful commercially in spite of the fact that the sintering machine is d l much more efficient thermally than the rotary V kiln. *One reason for this may be that the type of fusion taking place onthesintering, I

-sinteringj'machineflfor the rotary as a- 1 machineis sorapid and ofsuch short dura 7 takes place between the diiferentj constitue ents of; the cement mixture :with" the; result that, although 'a' 'firm clinker is :obta'ined=, .=it

nevertheless contains considerable percent 1 tion that. only avery incomplete?reaction 1 ages ofunreacte'd. materials and when it is I quality. Thepurpose of my invention iszto takeadvantage'iof the effect ofthis p'reliminary sintering': in holding theseveral ingreclients of the mix together, so that whenxthe final burning takes place in the rotaryg lriln,

or other furnace,the capacity of the "furnace is increased and the various ingredients: are present in the proper proportions 1n all parts of theeharge, with the, result that wh'enz sufpletethemselves the resulting cementwill both?as to uniformity and omposition. v

Having, bound together raw materials by sintering; the sintered'm'a terial may be fed directly to theirota ly or other kiln for the final burning operation; I

prefer, however, to pass the product through a i a suitable coarse crusher to breakup l'arge lumps and then to pass the resultingcoarsely crushed product. over suitable screens; a i In this way I secure a certain amount of relatively fine material which can; be mixed with the unsintered, very fine cementrawmatevrials and returned to the sinter-ingmachine. These returned ,fines; help to keep the: charge to the sinter machine moreopen andporous i .to air. Ifdesir-edtheymay' even be mixed ywith the. unfiltered slurry,l wh en process] ris used in connection withetheiwet process y of manufacturinglcement, and thus assist the granular fuel in'unakingthefiltering operation more easily and cheaply carried out." i From these screens I may also obtain the granular product which; I prefer to fluseto" protect thepallettesof the 's ntering machine as preyiously described 1;, When the final burning to be accomequipment that alljof' the product ofthe sin- I tering machinenotrequi red-for mixing with the raw charge or for protectingthe pfillttes hcles,

If the final burni i ito be rath r-ate v a in any other'kind of kiln, the crushing 'aiid plishediin a rotary kiln I prefer to so choose i I and arrange the crushing and screening is not part of the invention and'may'bejo-f vthe usual-Way. When a rotarykilnis used iofr-so-called high, early strength cements screening apparatusissoselected and a rranged that theproduct will 'be; in the form best adapted} for use the'particular kiln to be usjedi' I The sintering'materiai is then fedto asuitlable kiln in which it'is burned to cement in for thisoperation Iprefer to adjust its speed finished cement.- I v :My-processtmay be used inrth'e production it 'WhiCh lare'inj much demand because of their highrquality'andbecause roads: and Structures qbuiltwiththem. may be put'in'use" much quicker than. those builtlwith j ordinary ce- 7 -ment, fBy the use of my process such ace- 1-ment' vmaybe obtained by mixing the original ingredients in the desired'proportionsso that I the resulting cement will have the desired V com'positiong; ,For example,-zif acement' is' desired in which'the ratio of 'cQmbinedcal- I ,cium' oxide to silica, or itsequivalent, is

V about}2.8,' the ingredients" may be proportioned in the original mixjto give this ratio "in thefinished cementand the product will not contain an'objectionable amount'of free calcium oxide. J Forithe reasons suggested, the use of *my process permits a great expansion in thetapacity V of a cement plant 1 equipped with "rotarykilns". :The fuelcon'sumption isgreata ly reduced because the sintered material is {of v sucha nature that a rotarykiln can handle a larger load with'a resultant'higher thermal efficiency." There -is also less tendency for Q "this material-to:formrings inside the lgiln; "The lourningof cement with fuel in avertical' shaft kiln 'is'not. new. In this process the raw materials are groundand thoroughly mixed and formed into briquettes which are r charged into the vertical kiln together with the necessary "amount of fuel. This process is thermally highly efiicient but the small capa city of the kilncoupled with the labor "involved in briquetting are suchjas tomake it uneconomical in this country. It will-beevident that my method of giving the material a ofthesaidfuel.

7." A process for manufacturing cement comprising, mixing crushedr fuel and prepreliminary fusionor sinteri ng, resulting in V the-formation of appropriately sized agglom- V ferates," may be used beforea final burningin a continuously operated shaft kiln, instead of i gbefere'thatiin' the customary tear kiln with its w r" thellrnal ve ic' y-j y. fo low ng 1 it is procedure, the necessity of briquetting willbe eliminated.

' By the term sintering in the description and claimsIrefer to a fusion, or partial fusion,

sufficient 'to' hold the ingredients together, as

distinguished" from' the complete re quired to producethe finished cement;

ltisapparent that manymodifications of my preferred process may be. made and that my invention maybe. applied in many' differentwaysf and to other types of cements and itv lis notintendedto hereby limititto theparticular application's described;

Wha IClfiim is: s c' I 1 1. A process for manufacturing cement comprising, 7 mixing a slurry. of pulverized raw, cementrmateria'ls With' sufiicient-.finely divided solid fuel to p oducaiupon ombue tion ,sintering of-the cement miaturefiltering' .said mixture, igniting the fuel in theifilter wa id aw ne i through fl s m ur to ui port and promote the combustion of the fuel," and subjectingthe sinteredmass to further heatto'oomplete ithlburnihg of'the Cement;

V '2. In the manufactureof'ce1nent,thesteps a 7 comprising mixing finely divided fuel" with a slurry of pulverized. cement raw materials,

filtering said Slurry? -fi t naandpmf mu ing: c m sticn of the fuel in th filt cake.

3i 1 In the manufacture of cement, the steps comprisingmixingcrushed coal with a slurry *or pulverized cement iraw materials," filtering said slurry, and ignitingan-d promoting combus'tion of the coal inthe filter-cake. V

4. In the manufacture 0ffcement,the. steps comprising'miXing finely divided solid fuel with a slurry of pulverized raw cementfmate' ofair through the. mixture;

'6. In the manufacture of passingthefilterecake through a suitable apparatus to form aggloinerates, spreading} the mixtureon a foraminous hearth'so asto avoid packing, ignitingithe fuel in the e'x Y cement,-the stepsi "comprising mixing crushed fuel; and previ fouslysintered materialwitha slurryof ce V mentrawmaterials, filtering lsaid",mixture,

rials,{filteringfsaidrnixtura igniting thefuel l 'in; thefilter-cake and drawing airthroughthe mixture to support and-promotecombustion" posed surface, passing a draft of air through the mass to sustain and promote combustion vi'ously sintcred material slurry, of cement raw rnater1 als,'filter1ng the mixture,

and cement materials on the aforesaid layer,

igniting the fuel intheexposed surface, sup-f porting and promoting combustion of the re- A inainder of the fuel by a draft of air through the layers and the foraminous hearth, crushing the resulting mass and screening it to re cover several sizes ofmaterial, returnlng the smallest size to the slurry, returning the next larger sized granules to form' a layer on the foraminous hearth, and subjecting the remaining relatively uniformly sized granules screen, filtering'said slurry, and igniting and promoting combustion of the fuel in the filter'cake.

10. In the manufacture cement, the,

steps comprising mixing finely divided fuel with a slurry of pulverized cement raw materials, the fuel being present in the proportions of about 8 to 15% by weight of cement raw materials, filtering said slurry, and igniting and promoting combustion of the 7 fuel in the filter cake and subsequently heating' the resulting sintered mass to complete the burning of the cement.

11. In the manufacture of cement, the steps comprising mixingthe finely divided fuel with a slurry of pulverized cement raw materials, filtering said slurry, igniting and promoting combustion of the fuel in the filter cake, crushing the resulting massfand separating the particles between and one inch 7 and subjecting them to sufiicient heat to complete the burning to cement.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my I name to this specification this 22nd day of May 1929.

JAMES A. SINGMASTER.

iln to "complete 

